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Analyses of Books. 
[April, 
and vegetable life. Whilst leefluring at the University of Goet- 
tingen, where he acted as “ Docent ” (1805-6), he was engaged 
with the study of animal development, especially of the forma- 
tion of the intestinal canal in the embryo of the Mammalia. 
His results were published in 1806, whilst Wolff’s researches 
were only made known in Germany by Meckel’s translation in 
1812, and Pander’s work did not appear until 1816-17. 
Concerning Oken’s treatise the late E. E. Von Baer remarked 
— “ Highly as I value Dutrochet’s and Cuvier’s lessons on the 
development of the mammals, it appears to me undeniable that 
Oken’s researches have been the turning-point for a more correCl 
understanding of the mammalian egg.” Still it must be confessed 
that he does not take a prominent rank among the observers of 
novel faCts. We do not find him, like Cuvier and Hunter, dis- 
secting every insedl, mollusc, or reptile that came into his hands. 
Nor is he recorded as having, like White, concerned himself 
with the habits, the migrations, or the local occurrence of species. 
His strength lay in the detection of parallelisms and analogies ; 
in generalisations and predictions, bold, sometimes successful, 
but too often rash. For it must be confessed he did not possess 
the grace of suspending judgment, but rushed to conclusions 
where it would have been more discreet to await further evidence. 
Among his forecasts we may cite the following : — “ The funda- 
mental material of the organic world is carbon ; the carbonaceous 
mass must be at once solid and liquid, even slimy; everything 
organic proceeds from slime. The primitive slime from which 
all things proceed is the sea-slime.” Here we have the theory 
of the Protoplasm and the Bathybius ! Our modern authorities, 
too, speak of organic chemistry as the chemistry of carbon and 
its compounds. “The first step,” says Oken, “from the inor- 
ganic to the organic is the conversion into a cellule.” “The 
task of the philosophy of Nature is ” he declares,” to show how 
the elements and the heavenly bodies have arisen ; how they (the 
former) have been developed into higher and more manifold 
types, and have appeared as minerals ; becoming finally organic, 
and ariving at self-consciousness in man.” Here, therefore, we 
have an explicit avowal of Evolutionism, rare in the earlier part 
of the century. In consequence he was occasionally, in England 
at least, denounced by the dominant Cuvierian school as a setter- 
forth of dangerous doCtrines. We remember well feeling com- 
pelled to address a private letter of remonstrance to the editor of 
the “ Zoologist ” on occasion of a review of Oken’s “ Philosophy 
of Nature ” (the Ray Society’s translation) which appeared in 
that valuable journal. 
Among Oken’s other merits must be mentioned his earnest 
endeavours for the introduction of the natural sciences into the 
ordinary educational curriculum in Bavaria, and his controversy 
with Thiersh, the advocate of the word-mongers. Closely here- 
with connected was his laudable endeavour to minimise the pro- 
